I think I tried on every wedding dress within 50 miles that even came close to fitting me. I am a curvy UK size 14 with a 38F bust, (US10 and 38DDD/E) and really struggled because I was too big for standard sizes and too small for plus sizes - and most wedding dresses that *did* fit me were size 20, which, as someone who had lost four stone (56 lbs) at that point, was really dis-spiriting.

Also, I knew I didn't want a white/ivory/cream dress, and I didn't want to spend a fortune for something that I was going to wear for just one day.

So I went to eBay. My dress cost £80 including delivery, and it then needed taking in because I had lost MORE weight (and the dressmaker also made a small alteration to the front of the dress so it mirrored the back more), and that cost £85. The underskirt was £10 (also from eBay).

I think I tried on every wedding dress within 50 miles that even came close to fitting me. I am a curvy UK size 14 with a 38F bust, (US10 and 38DDD/E) and really struggled because I was too big for standard sizes and too small for plus sizes - and most wedding dresses that *did* fit me were size 20, which, as someone who had lost four stone (56 lbs) at that point, was really dis-spiriting.

Also, I knew I didn't want a white/ivory/cream dress, and I didn't want to spend a fortune for something that I was going to wear for just one day.

So I went to eBay. My dress cost £80 including delivery, and it then needed taking in because I had lost MORE weight (and the dressmaker also made a small alteration to the front of the dress so it mirrored the back more), and that cost £85. The underskirt was £10 (also from eBay).

This is DH and I walking into our wedding breakfast...

Wow. You look amazing, and so does the dress.

With all these stories about beautiful dresses for bargain prices, I'm beginning to feel like I spent too much - and I bought mine at a wedding consignment shop. $550 or something like that - I've forgotten - but it was beautiful, and it wasn't strapless, which was my fiance's only stipulation.

Our wedding is gonna have two dresses! (one for each of us, not planning a costume change mid-way through....it was considered for me)

Partner's is actually one my grandma picked up years back at an estate sale (we think), to resell and never did get around to reselling it. She resold several but for some reason, not this one. Now bear with me because I have no picture and I'm not the best at describing clothes. It's a slight a-line, hits her just below her knees (on a shorter woman it'd probably be tea-length), a sweetheart neckline and straps that are just thick enough she won't have to wear a special bra. She's having some details added in that I'm not allowed to know about. I do know that it involves the color red (her favorite color). And it cost the price of free. (alterations not yet calculated)

My wedding dress is my grandma's dress from her second marriage. It's held up pretty well, and she isn't sure where she got it from, most likely a second hand store. She had originally planned on wearing a simple skirted suit but at the last minute my great-grandma (her very soon to be MIL) came home with a dress for her to wear instead. She's been married 5 times (grandma) and this was the only time she got to wear a wedding dress. It's also knee length on me (tea length on her), slight a-line, and a v in the front and back, with about...1" thick straps (in other words I also don't have to wear a special bra). The one problem with it is that the banding around has a stain on it. I'm fixing this by having a purple sash put on. Which Partner doesn't know about (I get my secrets too). So mine has also cost the price of free. (alterations not yet calculated)

I love our dresses, they compliment each other nicely but are also very individual to us. Partner's is simple, streamlined, classic. Mine is a bit funkier, retro, what you'd think someone who goes by Glitter would wear. The fact that they were free is just an upside, a big one cause that money is going to food/booze now.

I wanted to make my wedding dress, the way my mother and little sister had. Mom and Grandma sewed lots of our clothes when we were growing up, and I wanted that for my wedding dress.

I also wanted a simple raw-silk dress, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money.

We got the fabric in the NYC fabric district for something like $4 a yard; I don't remember. I know that we spent around $25 or something, and got a couple of extra yards thrown in bcs the bolt we bought from had a flaw in the last yard.

We bought lining material, horsehair braid, and a pattern. (We lucked out and found a McCall's pattern that had all the features I wanted! V neck, pleats vs gathers on the skirt, fitted bodice, puff sleeves.)

I made a mockup out of a thick faille in what a friend called "tart red," and cut out my own dress. I sent the pieces to Mom & Grandma for them to make the basics, but I had to finish the neckline, do the back zipper, hem.

I told my MIL, "By the time you include shoes and fancy underwear, I'll have spent less than $150 on my dress."

She immediately said, "Do you think perhaps I could give you some money to buy a wedding dress from the bridal store? I have the money, I could give it to you easily."

I was thisclose to being offended.

She continued, "It's your wedding, and you should have a wonderful dress."

Still thisclose to being offended. And then I realized: She heard "cheap dress" as though it was a bad thing. In her world, you only made your own clothes if you didn't have money. And it didn't look that great.

So I had to say, "No, you don't understand--I'm getting EXACTLY the dress I want--it'll fit me perfectly, it'll be exactly the design I'm looking for. And even better, my mother and grandmother will have helped me to make it. "Plus, I'm *proud* of the fact that I am able to get exactly the dress I want for so little money. The fabric may have been inexpensive, but it's beautiful--100-percent dupioni silk."

It took some convincing, because she was so troubled by the idea that I was "cheaping out" on my wedding dress.

My dress was an Alfred Angelo too - cost me about $1,250 IIRC? Which is cheap, here. The second best one I could find was very simple, pure white (I wanted some colour, dangit!), with clear and white beads embroidered over it in flower patterns that you couldn't actually see from more than a couple of feet away, and over $3,000. What I ended up getting was AWESOME.

My wedding dress cost $1700. It was pretty standard for the time. Strapless, A-line skirt, small train, floor length. Except that it almost wasn't.

Because I'm pretty tall, I had to choose from a range that would cut my dress longer. So I did, and the saleslady carefully measured how long it would need to be on me, carefully wrote it down, and then, apparently completely forgot to order it that way.

So when she rang me 6 weeks before the wedding to say that it had arrived, I asked her to check that it was the right length. Nope. It had taken 5 months to arrive already. What to do? She assured me they could re-order and rush it, and it would be fine.

So I waited, wondering what on earth I would do, and got the call one week before the wedding that it had arrived the right length. Went straight there, picked it up, took it to be altered slightly, and had it two days before the wedding.

When I went to pick it up, the saleslady said, "Oh, we could have just put a frill on the bottom if the new one hadn't come."

My dress was an Alfred Angelo too - cost me about $1,250 IIRC? Which is cheap, here. The second best one I could find was very simple, pure white (I wanted some colour, dangit!), with clear and white beads embroidered over it in flower patterns that you couldn't actually see from more than a couple of feet away, and over $3,000. What I ended up getting was AWESOME.

My dress was about $600 all said and done, and I felt like that was a lot.

I had an off-white dress that was simple with minimal beadwork to mimic ivy vines crawling up the bodice. That kind of became our unintentional theme... ivy around the invitations, ivy in all the bouquets, etc. I got a veil and my grandma added a spattering of beads to it by hand, just enough to catch the light, and my mom used tea to dye my ballet slippers the appropriate off-white shade (I'm only 2'' shorter than DH, so heels were out).

My dress now has a lovely pale green haze around the hem from walking around in the wet grass immediately following the ceremony. It rained about an hour before our 5pm wedding started. "Customized," right?